Having just read Andrew Cowie’s recent blog, I wanted to comment but couldn’t find an option to do so there. So here it comes here on my blog instead…

Simply put, OpenJDK is so named because it’s a FOSS version of Sun’s JDK the implementation, not Java, which is the specification. Just because OpenJDK is the reference implementation doesn’t mean it is the specification as well. The equivalent would be calling Tomcat OpenServlet (it being the reference servlet implementation). This also reflects on the comments about the HTTP server being in com.sun. This is because it is part of Sun’s implementation and not part of the Java specification. To become part of the specification requires a JSR and interaction with the JCP which are distinct and separate from OpenJDK. That’s the process that would result in java.net.httpserver (or, more likely, javax.net.httpserver because it’s not an essential part of the core).

I hope that clears things up. I’m really happy OpenJDK has found an interesting alternate use that clearly demonstrates the benefits of the FOSS implementation over the proprietary one, and thanks for blogging on this. Now you should go build IcedTea…

jayesh

Hi ,
i am compiling the source code of Jdk1.5
but getting the errors as following:

ERROR: You do not have access to the Microsoft Layer for Unicode binary files.
Please check your access to
c:/WINDOWS/MSLU//unicows.dll or
m:/devtools/windows/MSLU/unicows.lib
and/or check your value of ALT_UNICOWS_DLL_PATH or ALT_UNICOWS_LIB_PATH

ERROR: To build Java 2 SDK 1.4 you need :
Visual C++ 6.0 Professional + VC6-SP 3 – cl.exe version “12.00.8168″
You are using Compiler version “12.00.8804″
Please install the required version of Visual C++ and start your build again.

ERROR: HOTSPOT_CLIENT_PATH does not point to a valid HotSpot debug VM.
Please check your access to
C:/J2SDK1~1.2_1/jre/bin/client/jvm_g.dll
and/or check your value of ALT_HOTSPOT_CLIENT_PATH.

ERROR: HOTSPOT_SERVER_PATH does not point to a valid HotSpot debug VM.
Please check your access to
C:/J2SDK1~1.2_1/jre/bin/server/jvm_g.dll
and/or check your value of ALT_HOTSPOT_SERVER_PATH.